Today I went for a haircut. My barber talks a lot. Sometimes he even stops cutting just to talk, which I find mildly annoying. On the other hand I am always entertained for 30 minutes while he cuts my hair. He does a good job and charges me 18 dollars, which is not the cheapest, but not the most expensive, haircut in Vancouver.
He told me that he came to Canada as a 16 year old, 20 years ago. He went to hair dressing school and then worked for a chain of hair salons for 5 years, in different locations in the city. He got to know the personalities of different kinds of clients. He found he did not like working in the heavily Chinese district of Richmond because, in his words, the customers would arrive late and expect to be served right away. If they were not served immediately, they assumed that the customer who was being served in their place had paid extra. He did not like the pressure of that situation.
He eventually opened his own shop in North Vancouver. He said that he made sure to learn about all the subjects that his clients were interested in, from fly fishing to the stock market. He knew that if customers liked him, they would come back.
After 20 years in Canada, dealing daily with English speaking Canadian clients, his English is just terrible. His pronunciation, use of words, structure, you name it, are all quite poor. When he talked about a leading politician and his wife, “he” and “she” were regularly used wrong. I had trouble understanding whom he was talking about. People who are not used to Chinese accents must have trouble understanding him. His English is poor even by the standards of his native Hong Kong.
Just being immersed in the language and talking the language will not necessarily improve you. You need to want to improve. You need to have a deliberate program of improvement. You need to listen.
On the other hand, he was successful at building up a customer base, and did not seem to feel inhibited in any way by his poor English. He was a communicator, although a better talker than a listener. I have not suggested to him that he join The Linguist.
